Very Bad Girls

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Stars' guide to Filmdom's top-5 femme fatales.

By Phil Pirrello

Vixens, tramps, dames&#Array; the femme fatale has been called many things, extending her fatal charm's sphere of influence to include not just film noir, but also gritty thrillers and the occasional Basic Instinct.

From Bond girls to Sin City, these dangerous broads have used their sex appeal at point-blank range, duping even the best private dicks and honest cops. Sometimes, they even show up with eyes batting and sob stories spilling, sans agenda, waiting for their knight in coffee-stained armor to save them. And with Jessica Alba's new movie, Awake, arriving in theatres on Friday, and featuring our favorite Babe (ye be warned, there be spoilers here!) using her husband's medical operation as a catalyst to steal his money and his heart, Stars thought it was time to rank and file the best of these gold-digging, homicidal hotties - and thus call them out, so that potential saps everywhere know what to look for the next time they actually believe an Alba, a Stone, or a Vesper want them for just their minds.

This chaps-wearing stripper is, quite literally, the girl with a heart of gold. And while she doesn't directly inflict harm on her potential saviors, she definitely, indirectly, puts some of them in harm's way. Just ask Bruce Willis' Hartigan, a cop who knows both the allure and the risk that comes with Nancy. A victim of crime herself, Nancy seems too innocent to realize the power of her charms - which makes her all the more dangerous to resist.

Plus, she looks a lot like the Alba. Which doesn't help a brutha out&#Array;

Only Madonna could pull off this act&#Array; and those dresses. While she doesn't hit Chinatown pathos, Dick Tracy's leading dame does manage to effectively unhinge our detective in the yellow coat. Bonus points for pulling double duty as The Blank, a faceless, voice-deficient crime figure who rattles Tracy's cage whenever Breathless isn't on stage shaking her money maker.